Comparative Literature at undergraduate level

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours) you will take the required modules in Comparative Literature along with modules from your chosen joint subject.

Typically, you will take one Comparative Literature module per semester during your first two years, and two modules per semester during your third and fourth year

1st Year

Students are required to take the following compulsory modules in their first year:

• The Nineteenth-Century Novel: introduces the study of Comparative Literature through 19th-century novels from France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and the UK.
• Drama in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: introduces the study of Comparative Literature through plays written in the 20th and 21st century from France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Russia, Spain, the UK and the US.

Students are required to take the following compulsory modules in their second year (all texts are read in English translation):

• Good and Evil: examines a broad range of texts from a number of national literatures, periods and genres in which the theme of good and evil is explored in different literary, social, political and historical contexts. Work on comparative theories and methodologies and on the importance of translation prepares students for Honours modules.
• Journeys: explores a broad range of texts from different national literatures, periods and genres offering variants on the theme of journeys, explored in a range of literary, social, political and historical contexts. Work on comparative theories and methodologies is pursued, as is an exploration of the importance of translation.

If you decide to take Comparative Literature in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, each based on at least three national literatures.

Here is a sample of Honours modules which have been offered in previous years:

• Autobiography and the Visual Arts
• Crossing the Mediterranean
• Cultural Memory and Literature
• Folk and Fairy Tales
• Found in Translation
• Issues in Comparative Literature
• Issues in Cultural Studies
• The Literary Canon
• Literature and the Bible.

In fourth year, students may also choose to undertake a 5,000 or 10,000-word dissertation on a topic of their choice, with individual supervision. This independent project enables you to develop key research skills which are desired by both prospective employers and by graduate schools offering postgraduate degrees.

The sub-honours modules listed here are the compulsory modules that students must take in order to graduate in this subject. However, most students at St Andrews take additional modules, either in their primary subject or from other subjects they are interested in. For Honours level, students choose from a range of Honours modules, some of which are listed above.